ANY.RUN vs Zscaler Cloud Sandbox: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
ANY.RUN is a free network sandboxing tool by ANY.RUN. Zscaler Cloud Sandbox is a commercial network sandboxing tool by Zscaler. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best network sandboxing fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, integrations, company size fit, here is our conclusion:
Incident response teams and threat hunters who need to detonate suspicious files in a controlled environment and watch the execution in real time will get the most from ANY.RUN; its interactive sandbox lets you pivot through network calls, registry changes, and process trees live rather than waiting for static analysis reports. The platform supports over 100 malware families with behavioral signatures, and the free tier removes friction for teams validating samples before escalation. Skip this if you need post-incident forensics or deep code-level debugging; ANY.RUN prioritizes live observation over artifact recovery.
Mid-market and enterprise security teams handling encrypted traffic need Zscaler Cloud Sandbox because it performs TLS/SSL inspection and delivers file verdicts in real time without blocking user workflows, a combination most sandboxes abandon for speed. The AI model trained on 600M+ samples plus Single Scan, Multi-Action detection catches polymorphic malware that static rules miss, and the Zero Trust Browser integration keeps users productive during analysis rather than stuck behind a hold screen. Skip this if your organization runs isolated air-gapped networks or processes mostly document-based threats; the value compounds with high email volumes and encrypted web traffic at scale.
